A yellow immunization card on your smartphone

Dr. Kumanan Wilson is a physician and research scientist who has developed an app that will allow parents to track immunizations and even get reminders about upcoming immunizations.Photo by

OTTAWA — It’s a common problem for parents: a yellow immunization card is incomplete or missing in action and the school needs information pronto.

So an Ottawa Hospital public health expert helped develop a free application, or app, for iPhones and iPads that tracks immunizations, reminds parents when it’s time for a child to get a shot or a booster and even issues warnings about vaccine-preventable outbreaks.

Many parents misplace the yellow cards or don’t know if their children’s vaccines are up to date, says Dr. Kumanan Wilson, a pandemic planning expert who is a scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and a Canada Research Chair in Public Health Policy.

Often, parents misplace the yellow card or forget it when they have a vaccination appointment. So they get a new card with information to be added to the old card they misplaced. Wilson was all ears when one of the women in his neighbourhood said she hated the yellow card and suggested creating an electronic version.

“People often don’t know where the immunization card is. But they know how to find their phone,” says Wilson. “It sounded like a good idea, but I didn’t know how to do it.”

In the summer of 2011, he mentioned the idea to Cameron Bell, an electrical engineering student at McGill University who had previously worked on a website for him. Three months later, Bell surprised him with a beta version of ImmunizeON, which has become the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute’s first iPhone app. The two have been improving the app ever since.

ImmunizeON is available free through iTunes this week and is ready to use for children born after August 2011, which is when Ontario’s vaccine schedule was last updated. However, users can enter any vaccine in the app to keep track of their children’s records.

Among the app’s features:

• it keeps immunization records readily accessible.

• it updates records on the spot.

• it receives vaccination reminders according to the Ontario vaccination schedule and the child’s age, as well as pointing out “unscheduled” vaccinations such as flu shots, the HPV vaccine for boys, and travel vaccines.

• it offers credible information on vaccines and what to do in case of an adverse reaction and tips for reducing pain associated with vaccinations.

• it offers alerts about outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases. There have been outbreaks if measles in Quebec and mumps in B.C., for example. The “radius” for alerts can be adjusted by the users.

• it sends vaccine records to the home email for backup.

“It’s a beautiful tool. The only thing I would say about electronic tools is that they have to be updated,” says Dr. Danielle Grenier, the medical affairs director of the Canadian Paediatric Society who is a Gatineau pediatrician. In Quebec, immunization cards are blue.

Grenier points out that most vaccines are 95 to 97 per cent effective. It’s important to follow a physician’s advice on the timing of vaccinations and booster shots.

“No vaccine is 100 per cent. But if you’re not vaccinated, you’re not protected,” she says.

There are slight variations in immunization schedules in provinces across Canada. ImmunizeON paves the way for a fully Canadian version in the coming months that will offer vaccination schedules and alerts from across the country.

Wilson, who has been communicating with public health officials across the country, hopes this is the first stage of a larger vision to make the app part of an integrated system of immunization records.

“We’re looking for feedback to develop the user experience,” he says.

Bell is already working on new features. He is adding vaccination schedules for older children, as well as backup to Apple’s cloud storage system so records won’t have to be backed up on home email. “We’re putting out a second version soon that will do a lot more,” he says.

Meanwhile, ImmunizeON’s front page is changeable, so users will be able to sign up for public health alerts on all kinds of subjects. Wilson believes the app can be valuable as a source of credible information for serious health alerts like SARS, which caused confusion and panic in 2002-2003.

“There was a lot of uncertainty. People were really looking for information,” says Wilson.

The app is now available on iTunes by searching for ImmunizeON. Wilson also wants to develop the app for Android and BlackBerry phones.

“While the paper yellow card remains the official vaccination record, we hope this app will make it easier for parents to keep track of their children’s vaccinations.”

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